Sunday, July 10, 2011

Snorkeling at Seven Mile Beach (Feb. 26th, 2011)

Snorkeling this day was pretty fun! Some cool stuff to see.However, a big barracuda kept hanging out and made the experience unnerving.You can catch a glimpse of the barracuda's silhouette in the background of the above picture. He never came close enough for me to get a good shot, just close enough to make his presence known.The coolest part of this day was that there were a bunch of squids hanging out. These are Caribbean Reef Squid. They're fairly common and can grow up to 1 foot in length. Some people think these are called Cuttlefish but, they are not. Squids, Octopuses and Cuttlefish are all types of cephalopoda. I found a good description of the differences between squid and cuttlefish on yahoo answers.Here's a Honeycomb Cowfish. It's a type of trunkfish. They're cool because their 'skin' is actually a hard carapace made up of a hexagonal 'honeycomb' pattern. I've tasted this fish before in a salad and its flesh is very light tasting.

Here's a Ocean Triggerfish. It's pretty big compared to most other fish around the reef. It's a solitary fish and can grow up to 65 cm in length. They're pretty skittish so I was lucky to get this close.Just a bunch of jack fish hanging out near the sandy bottom.This was pretty sweet! A big school of little fish swam past and I was surrounded. I guess they're a type of herring?